Music is for many the ultimate form of human communication as it transcends time and language. Musicians are, therefore, par excellence communicators and their success relies completely on being able to say something and touch people with their music-making.

The word “competition” and “music” may not intuitively go together as art and aesthetic pleasures are not meant to evolve in an environment of pressure. But this approach would perhaps miss out an important element inherent to all public performances of art. Whether an artist is able to communicate successfully is ultimately decided only by the audiences. The process of reaching out to an audience is long and arduous in terms of the hard work involved in learning and practicing and in the need to master the fine art of performing in public to various audiences and in various venues all over the world.

It is at this juncture where a music competition can act as a form of “aesthetic filter” and give a head-start to aspiring, and mostly young, musicians by affording them a platform to perform in front of a knowledgeable jury, members of which would probably have already gone through similar processes earlier on in their careers, as well as of an audience, since the competition will be open to the public.

In our efforts to make the Competition an event which will be emphasizing its music making aspect rather than its competitive edge which, by definition cannot be avoided, we are introducing a number of changes on which we would like to reflect for a while along the next paragraphs and in the overall context of the competition.

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We are inviting Pianists from all over the world, whose dates of birth are on or later than the 1stJanuary 1989, to apply to participate in the competition.

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Students of Members of the Jury ARE allowed to participate in the competition. When the time comes to vote, Jury Members whose students are participating in the competition will abstain from voting for his/her students. To achieve a fair treatment of all participants, each time it comes to cast a vote, the score received by each one of the participants will be divided by the number of votes contributing to achieve that score.

PRELIMINARY AUDITION

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There will be a maximum of 35 contestants accepted to participate in Round I - Quarter finals of the competition. The selection of these 35 contestants will be done by our local members of the Jury on the basis of judging DVD recordings of a programme selected from a given “menu” (Click here for details) sent by each applicant along with their application forms.

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First Prize-winners of International Piano Competitions members of the World Federation of International Music Competitions, will be automatically accepted to participate in the competition without having to go through this Selection process, provided they comply with the other conditions of the application to participate in the competition.

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Candidates are invited to send their applications from now on and until the 31st Mar 2019

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The names of the up to 35 Contestants accepted to participate in the Competition will be publicly announced in the official Website of our Competition: www.chopinsocietyhk.org on the 30th Apr 2019. All applications will be contacted individually to let them know of the results of the Preselection Audition.

Round I - Quarter finals

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The participation in Round I – Quarter finals of the competition, will be achieved by each of the 44 contestants sending us a recording of their up to 70 minutes performances of a programme which each one of them will have selected from a given list, and as directed (Click here for details).
These Digital Video Recordings should be received by our office by the 23rd June 2019.

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As we receive these recordings, our IT engineer will be uploading them onto a “cloud” and a password will have been given to each of the Members of the Jury to listen to them at their own pace.

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Each Member of the Jury will return to us a list of his/her choice of 15 contestants to go on to Round II – Semi finals.

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The processing of the voting by each Member of the Jury will be done by the Chairman and the Executive Secretary of the Society, administrative, non-voting members of the Panel of the Jury.

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The 15 Semi finalists of the 5th Hong Kong International Piano Competition will be publicly announced in the official Website of our Competition: www.chopinsocietyhk.org on the 2nd Aug 2019.The Contestants and the Members of the Jury will be contacted individually to let them know of the results of Round I – Quarter finals.

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The 15 Semi finalists who will be then invited to come to Hong Kong as described below, will be contacted by the Organizers to provide the additional documentation required to process their entry-working visas to enter Hong Kong. The entry - working visas will be processed by the Organizers in all cases. Part of the documentation to be sent to the Organizers will include the signed contract that the Society will be offering them as described below, accompanied by their choice of repertoire for their recitals (Semi finals) and their repertoire of Chamber Music and Concertos which those ones passing on to the Finals will be performing as part of the next stages of the Competition. E-mails with all of the above information will need to be received by the Organizers latest by the 17th August 2019.

The Contestants will be informed of the result of a draw which will be conducted at the office of the Competition as soon as the names of the 15 semi finalists are known, determining the order in which they will be performing and therefore determining the day in which each contestant will be expected to arrive in Hong Kong.

The Contestants will be responsible for buying their tickets to come to Hong Kong.

They will be expected to consult the office of the Competition before buying their tickets to get the Organizers’ approval in writing for buying the airtickets which will be needed to have the airfares refunded on arrival of each of the Contestants to Hong Kong.

Recitals in Hong Kong will take place at the Hong Kong City Hall Concert Hall at 17:00 and at 20:00 respectively, starting on the 7th Oct. with the last one taking place at 17:00 on the 14th Oct. following which there will be a Jury Deliberation and announcement of 6 FINALISTS who will be taking part in Round III – Finals of the Competition.

The Semi finalists will be expected to arrive in Hong Kong three days before their performance day, with the first two therefore arriving on the 4th Oct. and the last one on the 11th Oct. 2019.

Their return date should be marked on the 25th October, although this date should be able to be changed to the 16th Oct., when the 9 Semi finalists who will not go on to the Final Round of the competition will be departing Hong Kong.

All of the above information will need to be received by the Organizers latest by the 17th August 2019.

On receiving this information, the Committee will, in return, send the Semi finalists the scores of the two, up to 6 minutes long each, compulsory pieces which the organizers have commissioned from composers Chen Yi and Nimrod Borenstein to be performed during the recitals (semi finals) as well as the compulsory commissioned around 6 minutes long piece for guitar and piano , by Dusan Bogdanovich, to be performed by the Finalists during their Chamber Music performance session and played by each candidate with renowned guitarist Alvaro Pierri.

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It is a this point in the development of the Competition that we will make Hong Kong the stage in which a completely new way of conceiving and putting into scene a music competition is going to take place.

Round II - Semi finals

The 15 Semi-finalists selected in the way we have described in the above paragraphs, will be offered a contract to come to perform in Hong Kong. The terms of the contract will be:

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The Artists will be refunded the cost of their return economy class tickets to fly to Hong Kong from their place of abode.

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They will be provided Hotel Accommodation with a buffet breakfast included while in Hong Kong and while under the terms of the contract.

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They will be given a per diem allowance as well as being provided with practicing facilities and intra city transportation as needed between the hotel, practicing venue and the Hong Kong City Hall.

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The 9 semi finalists who will not go on to the Finals, will receive a Performing Fee of USD 500 each.

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The 15 Semi-finalists will literally come to Hong Kong to perform a full recital each (Part I – Intermission – Part II), of a total maximum duration of 105 minutes, to include an intermission of 15 minutes. The recital will be of a completely free repertoire, chosen by each one of the artists from published, commercially available scores (except for two, maximum 5 to 6 minutes long each, compulsory pieces which our Society will have commissioned from composers Chen Yi and Nimrod Borenstein), which will be performed in front of an audience composed by the general public and which will include the Members of the Jury.

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There will be two recitals per day, starting at 17:00 and at 20:00 respectively, on the following days: Mon. 7th Oct., Tue. 8th Oct., Wed. 9th Oct. Thu. 10th Oct., Fri. 11th Oct., Sat. 12th Oct., Sun. 13th Oct. On Mon. 14th Oct. there will be only one recital at 17:15, following which there will be a Jury Deliberation and announcement of 6 FINALISTS who will be taking part in Round III – Finals of the Competition (consisting of two parts: chamber music and a concerto)

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The announcement will be then immediately posted in the notice board of the competition at the Hong Kong City Hall and in our official website: www.chopinsocietyhk.org
A meeting will be separately held by the Organizing Committee with the ARTISTS to give them the results of the voting by the Members of the Jury and take care of all management issues relating to 9 of the Artists going back home and organizing the remaining 6 Artists’ (Finalists) rehearsals and performances schedules with the Logos Chamber Group and with the official Orchestra of the Competition.

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With this re-structuring of the way we are conceiving the Competition, we expect to eliminate the wall-to-wall music exercise for the Jury, which has been preoccupying us since the inception of our competition, format which we feel is counter-productive to be imposed onto any artistic presentation, never mind when it is one that involves “comparing” different performances. We aim then at presenting 15 top class artists in Hong Kong from which the Jury will select the 6 Finalists who will then go on to the Finals consisting of two parts: Chamber Music and Concertos.

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On Tuesday 15th October, there will be a performance part of The Joy of Music Festival 2019, which will be running in tandem with the Competition. Artist (s) and Programme will be announced in due course. COMPETITION / JOY OF MUSIC FESTIVAL

ROUND III – Finals (Part 1) – Chamber Music

The Society’s own LOGOS Ensemble will be in charge of performing with each one of the 6 Finalists during the Chamber Music section of the Finals. Another very special aspect of our Competition 2019, will be to incorporate a unique offer received from the LOGOS Ensemble by which the Finalists will be able to have a free choice of repertoire from the extensive list of published, commercially available scores of Piano Trios, Quartets or Quintets to be performed during their Chamber Music section of the Finals. In addition to this, we are happy to announce that we have agreed with the distinguished Composer/Interpreter (guitarist) Dusan Bogdanovich the commissioning of a 5 to 6 minutes long piece for piano and guitar which will be a compulsory piece to be played by each contestant just before their performance with the LOGOS Chamber Group. In performing this piece, the finalists will be playing together with renowned guitarist Alvaro Pierri.

The finalists will then go on to perform a concerto with the official orchestra of the Hong Kong international Piano Competition.

Wednesday 16th October

Chamber music performances, starting at 19:00

Finalists 1, 2 and 3 will each perform a compulsory commissioned piece by Dusan Bogdanovich, for piano and guitar played with Alvaro Pierri at the guitar, followed by the contestant’s choice of a piano trio, quartet or quintet, played with the LOGOS Chamber Group.

Performance by Finalist 1

Intermission of 15 minutes.

Performance by Finalist 2

Intermission of 15 minutes.

Performance by Finalist 3

The three Finalists performing in the evening of each date will be rehearsing with the Chamber Group in the morning as follows:
09:30 to 10:45 (Finalist 1)
11:00 to 12:15 (Finalist 2)
12:30 to 13:45 (Finalist 3)

Thursday 17th October

Chamber music performances, starting at 19:00

Finalists 4, 5 and 6 will each perform a compulsory commissioned piece by Dusan Bogdanovich, for piano and guitar played with Alvaro Pierri at the guitar, followed by the contestant’s choice of a piano trio, quartet or quintet, played with the LOGOS Chamber Group.

Performance by Finalist 4

Intermission of 10 minutes.

Performance by Finalist 5

Intermission of 15 minutes.

Performance by Finalist 6

The three Finalists performing in the evening of each date will be rehearsing with the LOGOS Chamber Group in the morning as follows:
09:30 to 10:45 (Finalist 4)
11:00 to 12:15 (Finalist 5)
12:30 to 13:45 (Finalist 6)

- Friday 18th October, there will be a performance part of The Joy of Music Festival 2019, which will be running in tandem with the Competition. Artist (s) and Programme will be announced in due course. COMPETITION / JOY OF MUSIC FESTIVAL

ROUND III – Finals (Part 2) – Concertos

Saturday 19th October

Concertos Performances, starting at 19:30

Finalists 1, 2 & 3 will each perform a Piano Concerto played with the official Orchestra of the Competition.

Performance by Finalist 1

Intermission of 15 minutes

Performance by Finalist 2

Intermission of 15 minutes

Performance by Finalist 3

The three Finalists performing in the evening will be rehearsing with the Orchestra in the morning as follows:
9:30 to 11:00 (Finalist 1)
11:20 to 12:50 (Finalist 2)
13:10 to 14:40 (Finalist 3)

Sunday 20th October

Concertos Performances, starting at 19:30

Finalists 4, 5 & 6 will each perform a Piano Concerto played with the official Orchestra of the Competition.

Performance by Finalist 4

Intermission of 15 minutes

Performance by Finalist 5

Intermission of 15 minutes

Performance by Finalist 6

The three Finalists performing in the evening will be rehearsing with the Orchestra in the morning as follows:
9:30 to 11:00 (Finalist 4)
11:20 to 12:50 (Finalist 5)
13:10 to 14:40 (Finalist 6)

The last performance on this evening will be followed by Jury deliberation and announcement of: THE WINNERS OF
THE 5th HONG KONG INTERNATIONAL PIANO COMPETITION - 2019

There will be three prizes awarded:

First Prize:

USD 25, 000, a 18K gold medal, a CD recording to be released by the ALPHA OMEGA SOUND, the recording label of the Chopin Society of Hong Kong Ltd., membership of the Club of the First Prize Winners of the Hong Kong International Piano Competition (with one of the benefits, among others, being an invitation to participate every following year in the annual Joy of Music Festival presented by the Society). The Society is negotiating a number of international engagements.

Second Prize :

(USD 15, 000 and a sterling silver medal) and

Third Prize :

(USD 10, 000 and a bronze medal)

Of the 6 Finalists, each of the ones NOT awarded one of the three Prizes, will receive a performing fee of USD 1, 000